Tested: OneUp Aluminum Pedals

Among the many benefits of running flats, they potentially have a thinner profile than clipless. And like cell phones, laptops, and prosciutto, thinner is better. It’s like dropping your bottom bracket height by 5 or more millimeters. Also, because flats are trending bigger and wider, they seem to reach out and grab trail obstacles like they’re marking their territory. So again, less is more. And though $120 isn’t exactly cheap for a platform pedal, using thickness as an inverse measure of price, the OneUp Aluminum pedals are well below average.

The OneUp Aluminum Pedals are barely 8 millimeters thick around the edge, and count 10 adjustable pins per side.

The outside edges of the OneUp Aluminum pedal are just 8 millimeters thick, and they resemble the axle-free designs of Tioga MT Zero peals or the absurd-looking Flypaper pedals from now-defunct Momentum Cycles. But these have a traditional axle with traditional bearings inside the body, albeit tiny ones. OneUp recommends pulling, inspecting, cleaning, and lubricating the guts of these flatties every 50 hours, which is about as often as you’re supposed to be pulling, inspecting, cleaning, and lubricating your rear shock’s air sleeve. You can get inside using a cassette lockring tool, and can further disassemble them using a 2.5 millimeter allen.

The traction pins are threaded in from underneath and are height-adjustable using 0.8-millimeter washers. But if you like your pins particularly shallow you’ll have to order OneUp’s pin kit for the included stack of extra washers. Out of the box, they’re anything but shallow. Anyone who rides flats in wet climates will feel safe on the OneUp Aluminum pedals, provided they have shin protection.

The thin, chamfered edges help keep rockstrikes from tripping you up.

I don’t ride in wet climates. I normally prefer to run shallow pins because I want the ability to reposition my feet should they get knocked off-center. But until I rode the OneUps, I had only ridden concave pedals. They make sense because they seemed the yin to my foot’s yang. But the OneUps have a very slight convex shape, and it makes a certain sort of sense. The center is just 2 millimeters higher than the edges, but it’s just enough that if you flex your toes, you’re able to slide around a bit. At full length, the pins mimic the grip of a concave pedal, and you can fine tune the grip to your liking.

The OneUp Aluminum pedals weigh in at just under 360 grams and are available in green, gray, or black.